By Cindrella Thawani,
The festival of joy, happiness and prosperity Diwali has come; everyone seems to be influenced by the glory of this festival, the same efficacy you can see in the inmates of Tihar and Sabarmati jails of Delhi and Ahmedabad respectively.
Sunil Gupta, Law Officer of Tihar jail, Delhi says, “prior to the Diwali prisoners make designer diyas, candles and pottery items for Diwali. These Diwali artefacts are being made by the skilled women prisoners in Tihar. While Rs 10,000 to 40,000 is the expected turnover, Rs 52 is the per day wages of the women prisoners.”
“All these designer artefacts for Diwali are being sold by the Jail Board and easily available at the Khadi Village outlets,” said Gupta.
Narendra Singh, prisoner from Ahmedabad Sabarmati Jail, convicted in Murder case says: “We wake up early in the morning, clean our Jail and worship Goddess of wealth (Lakshmi).” “We celebrate it very peacefully with Diyas and moreover we don’t burn crackers as we are aware about the pollution due to that” said Singh, who is pursuing his M.A correspondence from IGNOU.
There are two categories: open and close jail in Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati jail.
Open category, where prisoners get opportunity to work and earn for themselves, Narendra Singh from open jail says, “on the day of Diwali we work and per day we earn Rs 35, it’s good that we earn, but after this also, somewhere we lack true happiness, to celebrate the festival with family, but we do get chance to meet them.
Prisoner from Sabarmati jail, Babuji Hamiji, says “I have two daughters but they never used to come and meet me on the Diwali, my wife left me and I celebrate Diwali with the jail inmates only.”
Head Constable of Sabarmati jail, Natwarbhai Parmar says, “we cook special dishes to the choice of the prisoners, distribute sweets and various products are being provided to them for Diwali Puja.
Some especial facilities are being permitted to the prisoners during Diwali. Government also supports by providing various things needed to prisoners, according to the Parmar.
(The writer is Journalism student at Noida. She can be contacted at E-mail: [email protected])